bundle of nerves

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bundle of nerves (plural bundles of nerves)

1. (idiomatic) A person with an especially nervous, excitable, or fearful disposition.
   • 1895, Thomas Hardy, chapter 22, in The Hand of Ethelberta:

     Being in point of fact a complete bundle of nerves and nothing else, his thin figure shook like a harp-string in painful excitement at a contretemps which would scarcely have quickened the pulse of an ordinary man.

   • 1972 March 27, “Sudsy Whiff of Humanity”, in Time:

     She is a jittery bundle of nerves rather than the tough stoic she ought to be.

2. (idiomatic, dated) A lively, continually active person.
   • 1883 November 5, “Talk Across the Table”, in New York Times, retrieved 15 Apr. 2009, page 4:

     "Come and take lunch with me." The speaker was a walking, talking bundle of nerves, clothed in black broadcloth. A flawless diamond sparkled on the scarlet scarf that peeped above his close-fitting Prince Albert coat, and a pair of roguish eyes danced above two rosy cheeks.

   • 1914 October – 1916 July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 8, in The Mucker, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published 31 October 1921, →OCLC:

     He found Pesita pacing back and forth before his tent—an energetic bundle of nerves which no amount of hard riding and fighting could tire or discourage.

• (nervous, excitable, fearful person): bag of nerves, worrywart; see also Thesaurus:worrier or Thesaurus:coward
• (lively, continually active person): bundle of energy; See also Thesaurus:doer